Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo

Jonah 4 Jonah 3:10-4:11 // How can God be a God of mercy and justice at the same time? After God commands the fish to spit Jonah out on to dry land, Jonah reluctantly goes to Nineveh. As a Hebrew Israelite, currently experiencing the boot of the Assyrian empire, walking into Nineveh was a dangerous and life-threatening thing for Jonah to do, and yet he finally went - and began preaching a terrible sermon. Jonah wanted to see God's justice, and preached a bare-bones message of repentance with no hope of grace and mercy for Ninevah. But even through Jonah's message was weak, God worked miraculously in the hearts of everyone in Nineveh. From the king to the citizens, the city repents and puts their faith in the God of Jonah in the hope of receiving mercy from God. In Christ, we do not simply have hope that God will show mercy towards us - we have a guaranteed promise that because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, that there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Jonah Jonah 2:10 - 3:9 //How can God be a God of mercy and justice at the same time? After God commands the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land, Jonah reluctantly goes to Nineveh. As a Hebrew Israelite, currently experiencing the boot of the Assyrian empire, walking into Nineveh was a dangerous and life-threatening thing for Jonah to do, and yet he finally went - and began preaching a terrible sermon. Jonah wanted to see God's justice, and preached a bare-bones message of repentance with no hope of grace and mercy for Ninevah. But even through Jonah's message was weak, God worked miraculously in the hearts of everyone in Nineveh. From the king to the citizens, the city repents and puts their faith in the God of Jonah in the hope of receiving mercy from God. In Christ, we do not simply have hope that God will show mercy towards us - we have a guaranteed promise that because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, that there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Jonah Jonah 1:17 - 2:9 // Jonah did not just disobey God. He wanted to flee from God. So, in order to do this, he leaves the land of Israel, he leaves his people, and he even abandons his personal call and identity as a prophet of God, as he sails to the edge of the earth. Now, because of his sin, he cast into the sea where he sinks into complete and utter isolation. Sin often deceives us into thinking that it will give us pleasure and peace. But in reality, it drives us away and exiles us from the truest source of pleasure and peace. But just as Jonah found mercy and deliverance from the Lord deep in the belly of a fish, the Lord has mercy and grace on all those who call upon his name in the midst of their sin. The Lord takes our sin seriously enough to expose our sin and its consequences in our lives, but he also takes our sin seriously enough to send his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from the curse of sin and give us a hope and future where sin will never exist again! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Jonah (Part 1) Jonah 1:1-16 // Jonah is not just a story. Jonah is our story. Jonah represents the enduring call of the people to step out of their comfort, out of their bias, and out of their tribe to embrace the mission of God. We have been called. Do we have ears to hear the voice of the One who calls us? We have been sent. Will we go to where God sends us? We have been loved. Will we love as God has loved us? We have the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Will we declare it and display it to our neighbors and the nations? Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Genesis 9:5-6 // The doctrine of the sacredness of human life doesn’t only have implications for society at large. It has deeply personal implications that reach down into the very motivations of our hearts. Murder is the fundamental denial and discretion of the image of God. It is why it is forbidden even in the Ten Commandments of Moses. But Jesus drills down deeper. He shows us that murder is rooted in hatred within our hearts. When we are wounded and wronged, we are tempted to respond by wounding and wronging. We are tempted to hate. We are tempted to view our enemies as less than human. In Genesis 9, God fiercely threatens a reckoning for bloodshed. But the gospel announces that Jesus’s blood was shed so that whoever trusts in him will be reckoned as righteous. Genesis 9 shows us that murder is an abomination against God, but the Gospel reveals that the murder of God’s Son on the cross has become the very symbol of God's glory and the means of our redemption. When we honor the sacredness of human life in one another and in those whom we would consider our enemies, we honor our Redeemer, who united himself with humanity so that humanity might be united with God. We honor the one who loved us and died for us while we were still his enemies! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Galatians 1:1-9

Epiphany Isaiah 60:1-14 // Human beings long to be home. In each of us there is a sense of restlessness and eagerness to find that place where we belong, where we are at peace, and where we are at rest. At the end of every journey and adventure is the hope of arriving at a place we can call home. The Bible offers an account of why we hunger for home: human beings were created by God in the garden of Eden. Eden was a place of peace, provision, and flourishing, but even more, it was a place where humankind experienced unbroken union and fellowship with our Creator. Eden was our home. We lost this home because instead of living in submission to God, we chose to rebel against God. Instead of embracing loving fellowship with God, we chose fellowship with sin and the serpent, and the story of humankind’s exile from Eden and the longing for return is arguably the most important storyline of the Bible. But Isaiah tells us that there is a day coming when the longing for home will find its completion. There will be a day when an eternal light dawns and the people of God will be given an eternal home, where we will find our rest with the Savior who tells us, "“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:28–29)!

Galatians 4:4-7 // Even if you've never heard the phrase "deus ex machina" before, you probably have seen it in books, TV shows, and movies many times over: when the hero of the story has lost because the odds are insurmountable and their fate has been sealed, something outside of the established story suddenly changes all factors in the story. An unwinnable situation suddenly becomes winnable, and the hero defeats the villain. Even though these 'reverses' are everywhere in our storytelling, deep down inside we dislike them because they tell us that we really are not good enough, strong enough, or wise enough to white-knuckle our way to victory and success. Maybe we do really need someone to intervene in our situation - and praise be to God that "when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law", and that "for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God"! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Christmas Day 2022 John 1:14-18

Christmas Eve 2022 Luke 2:1-21

Advent 2022 (Part 4) Matthew 1:18-25 // As a man, Jesus has experienced all of our disappointments. He experienced the heartbreak of loss as he was told that John the Baptist had been murdered by Herod. He experienced the sting of betrayal as every one of his disciples fled from him when he was arrested. He knows the pain of what it feels like to have a friend like Peter curse the very mention of his name. He knows our disappointment. And that is why he is qualified to heal it. But even more, as God, Jesus accomplishes our ultimate hope. He lived a perfect life we could not live. He suffered death on the cross. But he overcame even the power of death, and one day he will return. He will make all things new, and he will wipe away all tears. Disappointment will be a forgotten dream because the kingdom of Christ will be the realization of our greatest hope and more. Jesus is the only one who will fulfill your deepest desires, and the promise of this gospel is a hope that will not disappoint! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Advent 2022 (Part 3) Matthew 11:2-11 // John the Baptist was the forerunner for Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah. And yet, despite spending his entire ministry preparing the way for Jesus, John began to have some doubts as he languished in his prison cell. What if Jesus wasn't the Messiah? What if he was preparing the way for the wrong person? John sends his disciples to inquire of Christ whether he ought to be looking for someone else, and in his response, Jesus answers him that he is the one John was looking for, but that he was different than what John expected. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus says he came to "to bring good news to the poor" and "to bind up the brokenhearted", but that John should not expect "the opening of the prison to those who are bound". But despite losing his life in prison to the whims of a wicked tyrant, John gained a future greater than anything he could've expected in this life. Sometimes our lives do not shape up to what we hope or expect, but as followers of Christ, even defeat and death turns to victory. In not meeting our worldly expectations, Jesus offers something even greater than our expectations - his eternal kingdom which cannot be shaken, one free from sin and death forever! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Advent 2022 (Part 2) Matthew 3:1-12 // Sometimes we need sharp reminders to shake us out of the stupor of our comfortable lives. John the Baptist's warning to the Pharisees and Sadducees - and to us today - is absolutely necessary. He sees through the pretension and the pride and lies that we construct to bring ourselves false comfort and he’s going to be able to separate the wheat, the fruit of a life oriented toward God and toward repentance, from the chaff, the excess useless part of the wheat that gets turned into fuel for the fire and represents ourself righteousness. But the warning also makes the comfort all the more sweet. Because as deep as your sin seems, as painful as your life situation is, as oppressive as your oppressors feel, nothing compares to the hope of Christ our comforter coming to meet us in our where we are at, in the Wilderness, rather than demanding that we claw our way before his throne. He has come for you! He is returning for you! He is coming to dwell with you! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Advent 2022 (Part 1) Matthew 1:1-17 // Matthew shows us that, more than entering the story of Israel, Jesus perfected it. Jesus succeeds where Israel fails. Jesus is the true Abraham who leaves a place of comfort to go forth in faith and find a home for his family, so that through him blessing might come into the whole world. He is the true David who fights the true giants of sin, Satan, and death on our behalf, and who will rule and reign with a kingdom that knows no end. Jesus is the one who brings home from our spiritual exile and gives us peace. Jesus is the true and better Abraham, the true and better David, and the true and better Israel. But even more than that, the good news for you is that Jesus is the true and better you. He has lived the perfect life you should have but could never have lived. As a loving substitute, he has died the death your sin deserved. He has victoriously risen from the dead, and as the true Lord and King he will one day return to heal and restore all that is broken and wrong! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!

Thanksgiving - Psalm 107 Psalm 107:1-32 // When we look out on nature, we see God’s goodness everywhere. Whether it is the glory of the Palo Duro Canyon, the beauty of snow, the joy of music, the taste of pizza, the wonder of children, the majesty of the universe, we see the good blessings of God everywhere around us. These are all examples of gifts God gives to all freely which reveal his nature to us. But the one place we see the goodness of God most clearly is in the gift of his only son to save sinners. Nowhere do we see the goodness of God more on display than in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In Jesus we see the sum total of God’s goodness as he becomes a human, lives a life of complete obedience to God and then willingly goes to the cross to die and pay the penalty in the place of the disobedient. Nowhere to we see the steadfast love of the Lord more in display than when we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The gospel of Jesus is the greatest expression of God’s goodness and his loyal love towards us. The world is full of God’s goodness, but Jesus is the fullest expression of God’s goodness! Our mission is to declare the gospel with our words and display the gospel with our lives to our neighbors and to the nations. Visit redeemerchristianchurch.com/give and join in our mission through your generous financial assistance - every gift and donation we receive goes to this goal!